and, in their view, something that occupies space need not be contained by anything else, nor need it have an actually existing spatial region. Rather, anything that can be pointed to and has distinguishable parts occupies space according to them.

They then disagree about what occupies space: is it composed of indivisible atoms, or of matter and form? Or is it composed of neither? Their disagreement concerning bodies has already been discussed.

In their view, a body occupies space, and nothing that occupies space falls outside the category of body except the indivisible atom, according to those who affirm its existence. Many or most of these thinkers believe that everything occupying space is composite—that is, it admits division into indivisible parts. Some even imagine that this is the consensus of the Muslims. Most of them maintain that things occupying space are identical in definition and essential reality.

Anyone who understands spatial occupation in this sense must declare Allah Most High free of occupying space in this sense. If he says, “The angels occupy space in this sense,” or, “The soul occupies space in this sense,” the majority of rational people, Muslims and others, dispute his claim. Indeed, no one among the early generations of the Muslim community or its leading scholars is known to have said that the angels occupy space in this sense, nor did they use any expression conveying this meaning. Likewise, none of the early generations said that the human soul, which departs from a person at death, occupies space in this sense, nor did anyone use an expression conveying this meaning concerning it.

If, then, ascribing this kind of spatial occupation to the angels and the soul is an innovation in religion and rationally false, then it must likewise be an innovation and a falsehood when ascribed to the Lord of